The new middle class and democracy in global perspective

the long version

High-technology capitalism utilizes computers, robots, and global information networks. It has engendered new classes - technocrats, bureaucrats, service and office workers - who will influence the structure and values of society. The question most central for us is that of the survival of democracy on this new base. Will the new middle class become the carrying class for a modern form of democracy utilizing the sophisticated communications technology, or, will democracy decline under the weight of the managerial and technocratic strata essential to the functioning of the modern economic and political institutions? There is also the question of wealth differential - which tore apart earlier capitalist societies. Will the 'selfish' accumulation of wealth destabilize high-tech capitalism as well? And finally, technological totalitarianism - 1984 - also forms part of the historical potential.